Sending you Love waves for Valentine's Day

Click above for a larger image. Or look at an animation.

These come from Lawrence Braile, at Purdue University, who has lots of good educational materials about earthquakes and seismology online. He also tells us the following: Love waves are one type of surface waves. They are characterized by transverse horizontal motion, perpendicular to the direction of propagation and generally parallel to the Earth’s surface. The velocity of these waves are from 2.0-4.5 km/s depending on the frequency of the propagating wave. Love waves exist because of the Earth’s free surface. They are largest in amplitude at the surface and decrease in amplitude with depth. Love waves are dispersive, that is, the wave velocity is dependent on frequency, with low frequencies normally propagating at higher velocity. The depth of penetration of the Love waves is also dependent on frequency, with lower frequencies penetrating to greater depth.

May you all enjoy much Love for Valentine's Day!